Into the Darkness Again
by Midnayuki
Summary: In Ruin and Creation's Passage, Sora's attempt at using his Drive Form goes wrong. He runs, and his friends follow. Antiform Oneshot.


**A/N: Hokays. This was going to be a drabble about Anti-form, but turned into an angsty hurt/comfort oneshot thing after it ran away from me.**

**Disclaimer: I in no way own Kingdom Hearts, or any of the characters.**

He was running. He didn't know why he ran, or how long he'd been running, but he knew that he had to keep going. He wasn't aware of his memories slowly slipping away from him; wasn't aware that his light was slowly fading. He could only run.

Somewhere, deep in his heart, he knew this had happened before. Back then, it was only Donald and Goofy that saw the darkness that was sealed away so tightly in his heart come bursting forth in a wave so powerful it seared his skin an inky black. They were helpless to stop it. So were the hoards of Heartless that surrounded them. The Heartless fell to the aching hunger and blinding fury of the monster more quickly than if Sora had done it in Master Form, which he had been trying to use.

There was no warmth anymore. He was falling again, he knew, just like when he had released the darkness in his heart to free Kairi's a year ago in Hollow Bastion. Hollow. He most certainly felt hollow now. There were no Heartless nearby to fill his hungry hollow self, nor were there Nobodies to fuel his anger and hate in a desperate attempt to fill the void within him.

They saw it this time. Riku and Kairi and the King called after him when he turned and ran. When he still had enough of a mind to know not to hurt them. He wasn't sure if they were called Riku and Kairi anymore though. He was forgetting. And even if he knew that he was forgetting, he wouldn't be able to care. Not anymore.

He detected movement to his right, and jumped to the left, twisting in the air to face his new prey. When it did not attack him, he crept forward, using his new animalistic instincts to detect any danger while he crept toward the anomaly. He tried to touch it, but its skin was cool and smooth. _Window,_ he thought._ It's a reflection_. He wasn't sure how he knew that, but understanding came to him.

He gazed at whatever was reflected in the surface of the window, and knew that it looked like him. _Wrong._ That one word, whispered in the corner of his heart, was all it took. It struck the window, clawing and scratching and tearing at everything it could until the glass shattered. It didn't even notice that its hands were torn and bleeding, or even that it stopped thinking of itself as a "him". It just ran again.

To say that Riku, Kairi, and the King were shocked at Sora's new appearance would be an understatement. They looked on in horror as Sora's attempt to use Valor form against the Nobodies that surrounded them failed. He tore through them like tissue paper, and huddled at the edge of the platform, twitching.

"...Sora?" Kairi spoke to him, reaching out as she did, trying to understand what had happened and comfort her friend. He started at the approach and ran as far away from them as he could, moving on all fours like an animal.

"Sora!" It was Riku this time. He was about to go follow his friend, but was stopped by another wave of Nobodies. Frustration building in him, he lashed out with the Way to Dawn, charging through the crowd as best as he could while King Mickey bobbed and weaved through the enemies, keeping the one's in Riku's blind spot off his back. Goofy did the same for Kairi, who was doing her best to follow Riku. Donald cured the lot of them, knowing from what Sora told him that Riku and Kairi would be too distracted to care about their own injuries when Sora was in trouble.

Eventually, the group made their way to the exit of Ruin and Creation's Passage, and began the trek back the way they came.

Footsteps. It could hear footsteps now, running along behind it. The ones chasing it were calling out loudly, needlessly attracting attention from the dark ones and the nothings in the world that should not be. What they were saying made its chest feel heavy and hurt, and made the emptiness inside it grow. With a low growl, it sprinted into a side hallway and through a door that had been left ajar.

It found itself in a spacious room with a few couches and tables. It could hear that the others were close now, and new that it would be exposed if it stayed in that room any longer. So, it bolted back down the hallway, nudging it's way into a room it had noticed before. The room was simple, but there were a few trinkets here and there that gave the impression that it had been occupied at one point, like seashells by the bed and a picture or two of three friends hanging on the wall.

The footsteps were closer now. It crept toward the door, hiding behind it with narrow eyes, watching for its prey. It waited patiently as its prey came into view for the first time. One of them was short with large ears and looked kind of dark, like him, but it reeked of light and goodness. The girl was much paler and taller, with pink clothing. She also smelled of purity and goodness, but it could sense something deep inside her that felt closer to the emptiness that was beyond the boundaries of the city. The feeling made it uneasy. The last felt closer in being to the creature. It was tall, and it reeked of both light and darkness. The last one, it decided, would be most delicious.

"Sora? Are you in here?" Their words made it pause. _Sora..._ that was familiar. A name. 'Sora' was a name. It's name. It clutched its head in its claws- no, _hands_, and it struggled with all its might to remember. Remembering was hard. Remembering hurt.

It managed to steady itself before it nudged the door too much, but it was too late; the un-oiled hinges creaked as they moved. They had heard it and were heading toward the source of the sound. It was now or never. It leapt with an animalistic hiss at its prey, only to leap back with a screech once it landed. They had brought out _things._ It didn't know what they were, but those things scared it. There was too much light in them; it hurt to even be near them. It began running again, but was stopped by the small one, who was much faster than it appeared.

"Sora, we're here to help you. Look at me." The girl was the one speaking. The name made it cringe again, and filled it with strange feelings that raged within it. It could only tremble as it fought off the confusion and hurt inside it. The tall one that smelled of darkness and light crouched down and laid a hand upon its shoulder. It recoiled from the contact, lashing out as it went. It stumbled into the corner, crouching down and hugging itself as more emotions swept through it.

When they were this close, in this room that felt so familiar, it knew that it could not attack them. So it drew away from them instead. It tried to make a break for the door again, but this time its way was blocked by the two it hadn't noticed before. They looked at it with strange eyes. If he hadn't forgotten so much, Sora would have known they were sad. But he forgot, so Sora only registered that they looked strange. These two didn't say anything. They just looked at it for a while as it looked back at them. They didn't seem surprised at what they saw, so they simply closed the door, sat on the bed, and waited. Something about their actions calmed it, and it curled up on the bed next to them like a cat.

Riku, Kairi, and the King were surprised with how well Donald and Goofy had been taking Sora's descent into darkness. They were calmer than even the King had ever seen them. Donald and Goofy moved with deliberate slowness, as if they were trying not to scare off an animal, and they kept their hands up in the universal "I mean no harm" gesture. Even more strange was that it was working. Sora had even approached the two of them and made itself look no less docile than a kitten, save for the wisps of darkness still streaming from their friend and the beady yellow eyes.

Kairi made to speak again, but Goofy silenced her before she could get any sound out. He looked at his friend, making sure Sora was asleep before explaining in a whisper, "Lotsa noise'l' startle 'im like this." Donald nodded, and the others reluctantly bobbed their heads in agreement, as they watched Sora inch his way toward the pillow in his sleep, hugging it under him.

When Sora woke up, he would find himself human again. He would be confused, then ashamed as he remembered what happened. He would look around the familiar room, and see the shadows of two who were gone. He would curl into himself because the darkness that swallowed him would still be close and leave his skin cold and clammy. He would be comforted by all his friends and assured that it wasn't his fault and that he had returned to the light again and that's all that mattered. He would summon the Keyblade and warmth would fill him again, and he would go on to fight Xemnas and win and go home with Riku.

But for now, Sora slept on, not knowing that he was special, not knowing that he was full of light and goodness, not knowing he would become himself again as he slept, not knowing the trials that still lay ahead of him or even the ones he'd conquered... He couldn't know that at that very moment, all the people in all of the worlds that meant the most to him were watching over him, waiting for Sora to come back and bring them light again.


End file.
